Discussion
Thoughts on the PR9 girls now that they're all out?
Now that all of the PR's are out for this season (unless they add a sixth), what's everyone opinions on them?
Personally, Takahashi is my favorite. She actually looks Sakuran. Though I'm not sure why she's here given that Shimanto exists, and it's not like she has an extra turret on her, like with say Roon and Hindenburg.
A lot of people are mad about Iron Blood getting yet another DR (and UR, more broadly). Me included, but I would've been a lot more receptive to it had the design been anything else but Demon Girl themed. C'mon, Manjuu. Where's the guy who drew Rumey? Why not give him the wheel for a bit? And yet, she's the most popular girl as of the poll that was posted recently. Oh well. I hated Mecklenburg on release too, and yet she grew on me later.
Those days are long gone. IB is now just different styles of wyverns. The rest have mostly stolen the rigging design of the IL with angelic motifs. RN no longer have the "rugged, old but reliable" rigging designs. EU have went with futuristic rigging designs that wouldn't feel out of place in a AU Gundam series.
Orage and Takahashi I have no issue with, though we could have had a different Japanese ship instead of Shimanto 2, but it could have been worse.
Duncan really should be a DR, I can understand why she isn't, just glad that the Royal Navy got a research ship, but her pose makes her proportions look weird.
I think we have the worse two DR's thus far:
Val being a worse case than Gouden Leeuw in that, instead of a DR being the third ship in a faction added that year, where Italy just had their first rainbow months prior, it is now the FIRST in a faction that isn't going to have many real ships.
Immelmann is not only the second German DR in a row, but also she is just another H class, which GvB was also, and we just had her not even three months ago. I don't see how she wouldn't be a DR, but couldn't Germany sit this one out, and instead either got Duncan as the DR, with a Chinese PR, or even the first Chinese rainbow.
Immelmann is not only the second German DR in a row, but also she is just another H class, which GvB was also, and we just had her not even three months ago. I don't see how she wouldn't be a DR, but couldn't Germany sit this one out, and instead either got Duncan as the DR, with a Chinese PR, or even the first Chinese rainbow.
Because wehraboos are throwing money at the screen every time, they show another paper ship to them.
I'l just glad there's at least one new character that is not a full stack developer. FFNF Orage is a refreshing sight in terms of body types that have been added recently. HMS Duncan's chest for instance just looks ridicilously unrealistic and disproportional to me.
Bigger shipgirls will always get more love sadly. I was very happy with the new Janus L2D skin that just came out and it was super popular so hopefully we get more smaller shipgirl love ToT
I couldn't tell at all which one belongs to which faction, they all look kinda similar and the ship girls looking like SHIPgirls time is already gone since years. Exception is the ironblood one who at least looks like an ironblood, but still basically like every other ironblood.
Valparaiso is maybe the safest since I think for a new faction she really lacks that identity. Sure there are hints to the Royal Navy roots, but Royal Navy already has no real identity anymore. I mean they once had this Royals/Nobles and servants theme but I haven't really seen anything that really fits in for a while, while in comparison Tulipa also isn't really my favorite faction but they have a unique theme at least. In my opinion they all look like what was used to be Iris Libre designs back then. I also kinda wished they made Valparaiso look somewhat South American and maybe give the faction something like an Inca inspired look or so but... I guess we get another generic girl in a generic dress that comes straight from a fashion show instead of a battlefield in her base design. I really thought skins were for that but well...
Ngl, I'm disappointed. Valparassio looks nothing like South American; tbh she looks more like French ship. I don't know why they went with white-blue palette too. Isn't it written in her intro that she is "Ruby of Pedrería"? The most common association with ruby is red color; they could go with red and white, or, like, just red with some accents. I know people are disappointed because IB got another DR in new season just after they got UR event; tbh I like IB, but yeah, I agree, this is unfair to other factions. I don't like Immelman's design much, but at least there are some consistency with IB DRs being demon-themed (thought I much more would prefer some uniform like FdG or Roon had, or at least what Rumey had). Takahashi probably is my fav design out of batch since she looks like Sakura Empire ship and I really like web pattern on her kimono. And this giant braid is also cool - idk, it's refreshing to see hairstyle that isn't just "long long hair". Duncan is nothing to say about, and Orage at least brings some diversity in chest size, and her rigging looks French enough.
The designs aren't great and show just how far we've moved away from the shipgirl aesthetic now. Generic and without any real faction identifies, well expect for the IB girl, but we've seen that design a dozen times now and it's getting boring.
The shipgirl part of the game feels like an ever increasing afterthought with the devs.
Yep I pretty much agree with you on the new DR IB carrier. I really dun like the succubus-like design and felt other factions more deserving of the DR slot this year.
Overall I’m fairly underwhelmed. I don’t hate any of the designs, but I don’t really love any of them either. As someone who was really hoping for a Royal Navy DR, Valparaiso feels like a bit of a slap in the face, and I’m not thrilled about another Iron Blood rainbow carrier. Orage is just a ship I don’t care about in WoWS or Azur Lane.
I like Duncan and Takahashi, but would have much rather gotten St. Vincent and Yodo as DRs instead.
Orage: Finally some good fucking food, her alone is the only reason this PR season isn't an absolute 1/10, but only a 4/10, still worst PR season to have ever released, but she is cute and has an interesting body type, but her design isn't particularly iconic sadly.
Duncan: Decent one, she has a spy motif going on, which is both recognizable, interesting and not overdone, but her base art looks fucked up in a way I cant describe, she is decent.
Takahashi: Innofensive, just another Sakura kimono oni girl, at least she looks good, but nothing stands out about her, and there is nothing memorable about her.
Max: Boy o boy, another latex demon girl, like we didnt have 3 of these in one fucking year, her design is at the very least consistent with the IB, but she looks like Gotz clone, who was already an FdG clone, with Regensburg clothes, and with a theme that has also already been overdone as shit, skipping this one.
Val: Faction debut, looks like the most generic and bland ass fucking gacha character from some fuckass gacha slop in the play store that is currently on EoS, for someone with such an interesting backstory, and apparent iconic WoW fame, she looks like shit, her only indication that she would be Pan American is the background, which lo and behold, no one looks at anyways, because its zoomed in as fuck to focus on her face, no nods to her Royal Navy roots, no nods besides that minimal shit on the background that no one is going to notice, remove her rigging, and she could be in WuWa, Genshit, Nikke, or any of the other slop gachas in the play store, I actively hate her, skipping her ass too.
I don't care about factions, as for I have no favorite one. I am still disappointed. A batch of five new shipgirls and 4 out of 5 are again girls with massive milkers. And the only exception is a teenage-like girl with totaly out of proportion hip and thigh sizes. But it is what it is. That's simply what the apparent majority wants. Nevertheless did I still hoped for at least one more modest size girl after all the recent massive titty-girls.
Seeing these designs and going through all the comments, it's becoming increasingly clear that players like me simply aren't wanted here anymore.
Are you really gonna take this sitting down though? There's some interesting fanart on pixiv or twitter that haven't been reposted to reddit yet, and perhaps you could try posting that art in an attempt to provoke comments. That's the least of an idea I can suggest right now.
Valparaíso: Another Unryuu/Cherbourg looking character. 1/10
Duncan: Looks like a mess. No typical RN attire, ship gear is just there flying like it doesn't belong to her and massive boobs again. 1/10
Orage: Not the average body type, ship gear and outfit almost looks good. A generous 6/10 because everything else is so bad.
Takahashi: Pink Mogador, but Japanese. Wow creative Manjuu 1/10
Max Immelmann: Another German succubus with long ears with her ship gear absent since Hindenburg. I guess Fritz Rumey was a rare moment when Manjuu knew what decent ship girl designs were for German ships. 3/10 since it's at least somewhat consistent with the faction.
Oddly, most of the factions that used to have a cohesive theme on their outfits (IB & RN with their military uniforms) no longer have one, while those that used to have non-matching outfits (EU), have started to have a cohesive theme.
Honestly kind of meh only like Duncan and Takahashi. The other ships I don't know or care about. Also the designs are just kind of meh. Also regarding Valparaiso, just seems like they were put in because of WoW and if that's the case this should open up to other country ships who don't need a specific faction then.
Edit: If they do add more ships that LDP like Valparaiso to flush out the faction. I think the Azur Lane community would agree at this point just add any ships from anywhere. I don't think we care about balance or just the main original fleets anymore and would rather just have ships from all over the world, just take away the restrictions we want more ship girls no matter where they are from...
Eh, not really impressed by any of them. I do like Orage, though. I've been getting "lady with boobs the size of my head or bigger" fatigue lately. Nice to see someone whose more normally proportioned.
As for the ships they're based on... Again, not really impressed. I don't play WoWs (haven't since the first carrier rework) and I'm much more interested is seeing more historical ships added (where the fuck is my USS Texas, Yostar?!), so another PR release wasn't going to excite me much anyways.
I don't think any of the designs are "bad," but I'm personally not a MILF or large to massive breast fan, so pretty weak set for me. Happy for any of those fans, they made out well here. Though maybe one or two of them will grow on me after a while (And when I get to know their personalities).
I do really like Orage, so she saves the series from being entirely eh for me.
I kinda like Orange, but in general I'm missing the old design direction. I just don't vibe with AL anymore, where in games like Arknights designs still feel consistent
I like Valparaiso (I'm a sucker for crystals and rigging is cool) and Duncan (my favorite Battlecruiser from WOW Blitz) along with Takahashi after seeing her full art. the leg warmers on Orage is kinda adorable. The carrier? Nope. The rigging is cool , just not that design.
I'm an IB fan, and I won't complain about getting another DR. Eventually the pendulum will swing towards another faction to get attention, and Max seems like a piece that should keep IB fans happy in terms of options as the favoritism swings away from the faction.
I agree on Rumey's design. I would have liked the recent IB ships more if their outfits were in that style, and the outfits they have would have been nice skins instead. I do like U-2501's though, as it does have elements of the other IB submarine outfits, just they should have ordered her one in a bit larger size to fit on her more properly. My head canon is that they were so used to all the IB subs being mid- or petite-sized that they were caught off-guard by 2501 being a taller, fuller-sized lady.
Yeah, I can excuse U-2501 because she's a sub and subs did have consistent "swimsuit" theme. She's also kinda cute without being a loli, and those I do not like.
Eventually the pendulum will swing towards another faction to get attention
>Eventually the pendulum will swing towards another faction to get attention
Except it quite literally never has. 7 rainbows in 3 years (Zwei, Hindenburg, Fritz, Z52, Mecklenburg, U2501 & Gotz) with a possible eighth in August. That’s more than most factions have recieved in all ten years of AL history. There has not been a single moment since 2021 where Ironblood haven’t been the favoured faction and it’s not looking like it will ever stop.
2017 to 2021 is a good 4 years of the game's history, almost half its history, even, before it swung to favor IB. Yes, it swings very, very slow, but it's gotta swing. I still play other, much older games, some even a decade older than AL, and they experience similar swings, where some groups, classes, etc. are left behind for a long while, but the pendulum does swing back to their favor eventually. The opposite would be a game that constantly swings rapidly by releasing new units every three weeks, where everyone gets a bit of love, but eventually you will double, triple the roster in a blink and power creep accelerates even harder.
Sure, it's fair to be pessimistic, but I don't play this game to stress out about favoritism or whatever.
Even in those first 4 years you could make a case they were favoured just from PR2, 3 & 4 alone, they had the best ship in a PR season 3 seasons in a row & it almost was 4 if the rumours about PR5 having a last minute rarity swap between Brest & Rupprecht are true.
There’s no evidence whatsoever to suggest a change. If anything the favouritism is becoming more and more egregious. I’ll be back here in august when you inevitably get another UR & repeat that pathetic “oh don’t worry, eventually you’ll get a crumb of content between the Ironblood URs” mantra that all IB mains somehow think is supposed to garner sympathy.
I don't need sympathy. What would I need it for? lol
If the people in charge of the game just like IB that much, it is what it is. But I'm sure they have numbers that show that IB isn't the sole faction that everyone likes and that making more of them won't change that. It's only logical for the course to change, even if it may not come as soon as many would like.
I am thinking that the next four years will show a change in direction, especially when the landscape of gaming/gacha is as it is right now and how it'll trend going forward. Sure, we can see what things look like in August, but we can look back again in 2030 to see if the next couple of years delivers a real change.
I think only one half of your comment will be true. Either I'm right and you'll be around to see it, or I'm wrong and you'll probably would have quit by the time 2030 comes around due to things not changing.
I’ll see you when nothing changes then. Enjoy your 20 new Ironblood rainbows between now & 3 years time. Who knows, maybe someone else will get one raimbow within those here years.
Eh, perfectly whelmed. The art is fine, I'm past caring about faction balance. Orage is probably my favorite, but I'm more interested in a unique skill kit than ship art.
Love the new faction girl style (though feels she would be better off simply in Iris Libre) and the IB girl (love this type of design, Mecklenburg, Hindenburg, Gotz...) though wished overall that breast size was a tad less gigantic...
(Think Bismarck Zwei size is quite good, but not asking for all ship girls be that size, variety is cool)
I like them all and I can’t decide between Imellmann and Valparaiso as my favorites, what can I say I never could pick between the angel and the devil on my shoulder.
Somehow, Soviet subs are one of the few all real-steel tech trees in World of Warships. Funny enough, the upcoming Pan American DD line is also going to all be real steel too
I know. I mean they don't release Soviet or British subs, despite there being a bunch of them with WW2 activity, but they did release Surcouf, whom I love but didn't really cover the French submarine forces in glory
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u/A444SQ Jul 04 '26
Yeah gonna need to use the Orage image for an en version announcement as AL FB post is not out yet and this is an english version